


A Happier Ending

by Bhelryss



Category: Zero | Fatal Frame
Genre: Gen, it's implied femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-12 02:26:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20556677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bhelryss/pseuds/Bhelryss
Summary: i was rather unhappy with the canon ending, and the alt ending, because i wanted something kinder.well, this is it.





	A Happier Ending

Child Kirie points to the door ajar, turning up her head to make extended eye contact. “Don’t forget your duty,” she chides, bells chiming as she moves. Her ghostly body warps, like a wind disturbing a curtain, and the moment grows longer. Kirie, in her white kimono, turns towards the door.

A vision of Kirie in front of the dolls plays again, overlayed across reality. “I don’t want to die,” Kirie says, and Miku’s heart throbs and her stomach twists. “I don’t want to die…” Mafuyu steps forward, and Miku fears for a brief moment that he will reach out and touch her. Ghosts aren’t kind, these few nights have made that promise to her. Ghosts aren’t kind.

But he doesn’t reach out, and Kirie looks from the door to her hands. 

“I was born for this,” Kirie says, and reaches out for her child self. “We were born for this.” Child Kirie falls forward, and there is only a flash-moment where they are hugging, and then they are one, and only Kirie remains. “I will not fail in my duty,” she says, voice firm even as she curls in on herself. 

With her arms raised up, lit up with power, the door closes. It groans with reluctance, but with a harsh concentration, it finally slams closed. She reaches for a rope, and it flies to her hand. She reaches for the other, and it flies to her hands. Kirie hesitates, and looks up at the door and hears its stress as it begs to open again. She turns back, and her eyes are closed. “You both should go. I have to stay, and keep the Calamity at bay. Forever, I’ll be here to keep it closed. Go.”

Miku steps back, relieved. They can go, this can all be over. “Mafuyu, brother, let’s  _ go _ .” He hesitates though, and her heart rate picks back up.

“I can help her,” he says. “She’ll be alone, I can help her.” 

A ghostly hand on her shoulder pulls a scream right out of Miku.  _ Ghosts aren’t kind _ . “She won’t be alone,” says the shrine maiden’s ghost. Her hair is pulled up neatly, and her white kimono is stained along the hems of her sleeves. This shrine maiden strides forward and reaches out, and steals a rope from Kirie’s grasp. Another crawls up from the ground, her hair braided down her back. Her neck is bruised, but she reaches out and steals the other rope. “I’ll be here with her. For as long as the gate needs guarding.”

Between the three of them, the gate’s groaning slows, it’s buckling door calms. Kirie slowly takes each of their hands, and power glows around their threaded fingers. “She’s not alone,” says the other shrine maiden. “This is the duty of the maidens. She could never be alone.” Lifting up Kirie’s hand, still held in her own, this maiden presses a kiss to the back of it. “I’ll be with her, for as long as this gate needs guarding.

“You both should go,” Kirie repeats. Miku grabs hold of Mifuyu’s hand, and tugs him away. Her last glimpse back, and Miku almost thinks she sees a smile, a flush on her ghostly image. But then they’re fled, and Kirie and the other maidens are gone.

Free of the decrepit mansion and it nightmares, Mafuyu and Miku watch the trapped souls fly free. “Returning to where they belong.” Miku says, breathlessly. And when they have all faded from sight, Miku and Mafuyu go home, and from that moment they lose their ability to see the things other people can’t.


End file.
